----NY----

I happen to watch this movie yesterday. I did not read reviews before I watched and I think that's one reason that I liked the movie. There are 3 other things that adds flavor to it - The smart hunk John Abraham, the
gorgoeus looking Katrina Kaif and the story plot. This is the first movie of Katrina that I am watching and I should admit that she is amazingly beautiful! Neil as Omar has done his part well except for some weird
emoticons that he shows at times. When it comes to a police officer role and someone has to pick up from Bollywood, the choice obviously goes to Irfan and he did not make people regret for the choice that was made. I am not sure how much validity lies in the brutality shown to the 9/11 suspects, but John Abraham scores high when he is ill treated in prison. Everytime he was beaten, I was closing my face not to see it and giving a noise as if someone is beating me :) When Katrina says to Neil that she knows what John is doing, When Neil drops down knowing Katrina loves John, When John takes his daugher Dhaanya upstairs not to hear what they talk, all that shown was love. The story plot is good in terms of the inability to guess what would be the next move. On the whole, the movie was good to watch when compared to all other masala, commercial or the usual evergreen love stories. The facts shown at the climax is good as an ending. On the whole, I liked it and my verdict is good!

KS....

Its been a year since I went to a movie with friends here in Colorado. Had a chance to watch the newly released 'Kandhaswamy' here today. Although there was much hype about it, my instinct said that it would be a great flop. I went just to pass time :) Writing a review for KS is not worth it and so I am going to end it with these two lines.

Kandha Kandha Kandhaswamy
Naan poi vandhen vandhen nondhu swamy :)

Aarusamy
Malaisamy
Govindasamy
Ayyasamy
....
Ellame doopu...
Kandhsamy
Perum floppu....:)

1970's...

Mauro or Moishale? was the title that I intended to put for this blog post @ the first place. Probably my spelling may not have turned correct...I just googled it and found that I'm not getting there right...Anyways I am not concerned about the spelling here and let's get into it....

Yet another movie that I watched this weekend and slated as 'worth watching'. It's a brazilian movie and I did not know that until I saw the title flashing on my laptop from the netflix queue picks. And I was surprised that I picked a movie by chance which has been nominated for Oscars and won 4 academy awards. Seeing the title, I thought it's an English movie which I've not heard before. This revolves around 1970's, jews, world cup football, Pele, politics, communism and the main character Mauro, a 12 year old boy who is left in a jewish neighbourhood when his parents went on vacation. The real meaning of vacation comes later. After seeing movies that takes a small boy/girl as the main character, I am quite impressed that how a 12 year old can act so vividly. Few other shows/movies to quote on this genre - Taare Zammen Par which featured Darsheel Safari, David Copperfield which featured Daniel Radcliffe, Anjali that featured Shamili...and now this gets added to the list.

Mauro is a soccer fanatic and the movie starts where he plays the desk soccer game @ home. He was left alone when his parents went on vacation. Then, he gets a chance to meet different people and make new friends around. Brazil's 1970 world cup win and the way people watched it in dining places, listened to the scores in the transistor, jiggled and giggled around...even those kids ran around and watched it with great interest, clapped their hands and did high fives - It reminded me of the World cup cricket matches which I used to watch and shout at times showing different emotions.

And what I felt about the different characters in this movie 'The Year my parents went on vacation'?

Mauro - One who stole the whole movie...He's the essence of the movie
Hannah - Cute and clever. Clever when opening windows for those kids to see girls changing dresses in her mom's garment shop and get money from those kids for allowing them to see it as a bribe :)
Shloma - The jewish thatha in the nearby door, very religious...
Irene - Very beautiful

Rest of the characters did their part quiet well but I have nothing to write about them. I dont want to reveal the entire storyline here and leave it to everyone to watch it when a chance strikes :)
My rating: 4.8/5 especially for Mauro's performance.

The 'Musical' fe(a)te

I have the habit of starting the day with a devotional song and it's been 'kandha sashti kavacham' or 'Venkatesa subrapatham' most of the times played from my youtube quicklist every morning. I wanted to play some other song for a change today and there came 'Maha ganapathim' but it showed a picture of Shabana Azmi instead of Sivakumar. I was surprised and played that video to see what it actually was and where it came from. I must say that I was impressed by the music and the singing which led to watch the musical fe(a)te in the later part of the day as a movie.

Three lives - Abhinay's, Swarnalatha's and Priyanka's connected by the title of the post. Abhinay is an aspiring musician whose mother dies in a road accident when he was a kid. Priyanka is a business woman who helps her mother in her business and she sings at times. Priyanka loses her father in the same road accident where Abhinay had lost his mother. Swarnalatha is Abhinay's periamma and she's a versatile carnatic singer who lost her son when he was a kid in the same road accident. It's as simple as this - Abhinay comes to his native village to tell his dad Naser that he's going to form a music group which Naser resists by his looks. On the 'devasham' day Abhinay gets a chance to meet Swarnalatha and Priyanka where the musical journey begins and rest is the movie.

There's nothing great about the movie but I liked it for two main reasons - 1. The musical fusion at the end of the movie 2. A simple naration without any hullaballo. Now, on the various aspects of the movie:
1. Music - Usually when I watch movies, I just forward the songs except when I know that there are few songs that I like in the movie. There are only two movies in the recent past where I did not hit any button other
than a 'Play' - One is 'Rock On' and the other one is this movie which I am talking about. I am yet to explore on who sang the track 'Thaye Yasodha' in this movie but it was great listening to it
2. Cast - IMHO, Abinay was a decent looking guy who has performed his part as given. He reminded me of my favorite VVS Laxman at times :) Priyanka was good looking especially in those sarees but I did not like her voice. Swarnalatha (S Azmi) - a typical south indian mother look and I loved seeing her traditional wears - 'Mangalyam' and those cotton sarees and the thalai kuli towel :) Naser and 'Thalaivasal' Vijay - Their part was small but I liked T Vijay's matured role as Swarnalatha's soothing husband
3. Comedy - There's nothing as comedy in this movie but I could only smile rather than laugh when the Annapoorna part comes in the form of a cow :)
4. Romance - Romance was like a sprinkled water in a huge bucket. Just a hug, a cycle ride tells it all between Abhi and Pinki
5. A bit annoying - Munna's behaviour and Pinki's mom's modern look
6. My takeaway - You gotta have some sort of inspiration in life to do something different that you like
7. My rating - 4.8 stars out of 5

And, do you know what movie am I talking about? Here's the poster:

Thoonga Povadhu Yaaru?

Ada naan dhaan :) I am not sure why this happens to me these days...:) It's a known fact that most of us usually fall asleep when it's exam time or during office hours but I am a different breed in this case. I have never fallen into these two categories. But nowadays, I am getting into this new trend of falling asleep whenever I try to watch a movie. And that too this happened for 3 days continuously - Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Friday it was when I watched 'Rock On' but somehow I completed it the next day, On saturday it was 'Silambattam' (a good reason for falling asleep though, apdi oru bore, Simbuvoda vachukava aatatha paathum kooda thoongi vizhundhenna paathukonga :)), On Sunday for 13 going on 30!

Moral of the post: If I dont get sleep, I can switch on a TV and if I did not fell asleep while I was watching a movie, the film can be nominated for a filmfare award:)
P.S.: And the Venn diagram represents the % of movie scenes I watched :)

3:1

Poo - Started with this on a Friday night. No, I am wrong! I started with 'Abhiyum Naanum' and after watching the first part, I felt it was very slow and dragging and did not have an interest to continue. So flipped to Sasi's 'Poo'. IMHO, the +ve factor of the movie is the cast inspite of not having the experienced and popular faces. The new faced heroine Paarvathi is flawless in her acting which is impressive. The acting and role of each cast in the movie seems so realistic. The one thing that irritated me was Maari's (Parvathi) It's 'Thangarasu', That's Thangarasu and all about Thangarasu (Srikanth) sentences but no quips about it since that's what the story is based about. The movie in certain aspects reminded me of Azhagi and Kaadhal. I have a reason for it - The song during their childhood days with other kids around which is similar to that groundnut song 'Chutthi Chutthi...' from Azhagi :) and the cast that suits to the movie which is similar to Kaadhal :) My rating shows 3 stars.

The Bucket List - Wat a movie? Simply amazing! The thoughtful idea....I loved it! Two men on death bed knowing that they may not live after 6 months goes on a mission to freak out with their wish list called 'The Bucket list'. The way that Morgan Freeman sounds in the message that he gives at the beginning of the movie - I always thought it is influential. Is it not? It has a meaning. Sitting on the edge of the Pyramids, Skydiving, Riding on a bike in Great Wall of China, Driving a Mustang and hitting every rod in the roads and the list goes on and on...But one thing on the list is kinda moving - 'Laugh until you cry' and when Morgan F strikes that off after he does it. People say this movie was a flop but I liked it. My rating shows 4 stars.

Outsourced - Mr. Todd whom people in India call as 'Toad' and he stands correcting them everytime is a good one. A call center whose building is left unconstructed and a cow stays before it, the water pours in because of poor irrigation - Tats India! The hospitality shown by the Salavaikaran (Don't read it a Saliva, it's washman) to Todd - Tat's India! And the so called heroine says about her one day with Todd as 'Holiday in Goa'...which made me think - Is that India? ;) Not so great movie but a good timepass entertainer. My rating shows 2.5 stars.

Hit Ya Miss?

The bollywood movie list for 2009 is released. Want to take a look? Here goes...
1. Munnabhai Chale Amrika - Sanjay Dutt & co.
2. Kaun Banega Millionaire (This name rings something - Yeah, hindi Version of 'The Slumdog Millionaire')
3. Luck by chance - Farhan Akthar, Konkana Sen Sharma & co.
4. De Dhana Dhan - Priyadharshan's comedy flick - Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Sunil Shetty
5. Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani - Ranbir & Katrina
6. Hindi version of Endhiran - Superstar & Ash
7. Yahoo - Shahid & Arshad Warsi
8. Raavana - Bachchan Jr & Ash
9. Eight by Ten - Akshay Kumar
10. Newyork - John Abraham, Kabir Khan and Katrina
11. 3 Idiots - Aamir Khan Production - Aamir, Madhavan and Sharman (Is it based on 'Five Point Someone' by Chetan Bhagat)
12. Kites - Hrithik & Kangana Ranaut
13. My name is Khan - Kajol & Sharukh
14. Kambakth Ishq - Akshay & Kareena
15. Blue - Sanjay Dutt & Akshay
16. Wake up Sid - Ranbir & Konkana
17. London Dreams - Salman, Ajay Devgan & Asin
18. Kaminay - Shahid & Priyanka Chopra
19. Delhi 6 - Bachchan Jr & Sonam Kapoor
20. Billu Barber - It's tamil version is Kuselan - Sharukh & Irfan
21. Dev D - The modern Devdas - Abhay Deol
22. Chandni Chowk to China - Akshay & Deepika

Courtesy: Sify movies

Friday & films...

On a usual Friday night, I always end up watching a movie but last night, I ended up watching two movies of completely different genre. Yeah, I am going to talk about it now. The best part in watching those movies which did not sound me as a lullaby is mainly because of the english subtitles although they were hindi movies. One is 'A Wednesday' and the other one is 'Vivah'.

A Wednesday: When I finished watching this movie, it left me a trail of thoughts on movies like 'Mudhalvan', 'Indian', 'Evano Oruvan', 'Anniyan'. But I have to admit that 'A Wednesday' is a different kind from those listed but the effect was the same. I guess I watched it at the right time keeping Mumbai blasts in my mind. The aftermath of the Mumbai blasts did not have a greater impact on me like others being furious on those blasts and blogging more about it. But I talked about it more to friends and watched it continually for hours in the TVs and website videos. This movie gave me lot of answers although in reality it may not be the same that a terrorist would give a justification of what he does like Iqbal Khan in the movie but that was reasonable from an Indian religious mind. The moves and strategies handled by Nasserudhin Shah as directed is great. The furious police officer Arif Khan and 'the will do what you say' police officer Jaipal Singh has done their job perfectly. Out of the whole movie, I liked the last part a lot when the hacker says 'This man is the best' failing to give the location details of NShah; When the police officer Babu says 'The person in the skecth is only 1% similar' making NShah escape; Anupam Kher goes to the location and just shake hands with Nshah - All from a common man's perspective feeling that this man has done what I have not or what I will not; NShah saying 'You feel different since a common man has killed 4 people but you dint feel different when a terrorist killed 400 people, what's this officer?' It's like NShah conveyed everything that a common man wanted to. That's so realistic and hence this movie is great! I liked it and I will recommend this to anyone.


Vivah: A very ordinary movie without any thrills or grills which revolves around two families - of course, the bride and the groom's, trying to answer questions like 'What's in a marriage?' 'Why a relationship is important?' but it fulfilled those questions by answering only in word-of-mouth from Krishnakantji (Dad of the bride). When it comes to a dad position, I think all the directors go either to this man or AKher. They deserve it though :) Amrita Rao looks good at various angles but has only few lines to speak in the entire movie. Shahid did not fit quite well to the storyline, is my feeling. I do not have much to write, for the reason being the movie was not so enjoyable. I will give 1.5 out of 5 in my scorecard.

Image Courtesy:
Yahoo Movies(Vivah)
Times of India(A Wednesday)

Fav lines...Guess???

Guess the movie:

1. manidhargal silanaeram thadam maaralaam
manangalum avar gunangalum niram maaralaam
ilakkanam sila naeram thavaraagalaam
ezhudhiya anbu ilakkiyam pizhaiyaagalaam

2. kaatrin perisaiyil
mazhai paadum paadangalum oru maunam poal inbam tarumooOO
koadi keertanamum kavi koartha vaarthaiygalum thuLi kaNNer poal arththam tharumo

3. Dhooram endre sollai
Thookil poatu kolla
Nee vaaraay
Purai yaerum poadhellam
Thaniyaahe sirikindraen

4. pechellam thaalatu pola
ennai uranga vaikka nee illai
thinamum oru muttam thanthu
kaalai coffee koduka nee illai

5. maNNai thiRandhaal neer irukkum
en manadhai thiRandhaal nee iruppaay
oliyai thiRandhaal isai irukkum
en uyirai thiRandhaal nee iruppaay

6. Kan vizhithu paartha podhu kalaindha vanname
Un kairegai mattum en ninaivu chinname
Kadhari Kadhari enadhu ullam udaindhu ponadhey
Sidharipona sillil ellam unadhu bimmame

7.soalai malaroLiyoa unadhu sundharap punnagaidhaan
neelak kadalalaiyae unadhu nenjin alaigaLadi
koalak kuyiloasai unadhu kuralin inimaiyadi
vaalaik kumariyadi kaNNammaa maruvak kaadhal koNdaen

8. poovinaich choottum koondhalil endhan aaviyai nee aen soottugiraay?
thaenai ootrum nilavinil kooda theeyinai nee aen moottugiraay?
kadarkaraik kaatrae...
kadarkaraik kaatrae vazhiyai vidu dhaevadhai vandhaal ennoadu

There are lots more but I will confine this here...

Rayil Payanangalil...

While I was listening to songs, it just hit my mind and I started compiling a list of songs that falls into this genre - Tamil songs on a train. Do u remember anything other than this?
1. Rayile Rayile - 5 star
2. Vandi Vandi Rayilu vandi - Jeyam
3. Poovarasam Poo poothachu - Kizhakke Pogum Rayil
4. Goods Vandiyile - Kunguma Chimizh
5. Mey Madham - Jay Jay
6. Innisai Paadi Varum - Thulladha Manamum Thullum
7. Nenjukkul Peidhidum - Vaaranam Aayiram
8. Uyire En Uyire - Thotti Jaya
9. Thaalatum Kaatre Vaa - Poovellam En Vaasam
10. Thaiya Thaiya - Uyire
11. Ele Machi Machi - Anbae Sivam
12. Maratha vachavan - Panakkaran
13. Vellaraika - Kaadhal Kottai

Flavors

This is the third time I am watching this Desi American movie called 'Flavors'. There is nothing great about this movie but I like this movie for portraying the reality of desis being in US. Desis on bench, how day-to-day life goes for a house wife in America, how serious is being jobless, friendships, beer, parents visit and how they look at things here - a real flavor in 'Flavors'. Out of the whole movie, I like two characters - Karthik for being a very practical and happy-go lucky guy and Rad's (RadhaKrishnan) mom fitting into the real Indian type of mommy. It's just a 'light' movie which can erode one's boredom and I can watch this again.

Movie Time

I saw the movie 'The Departed' on Saturday night and it's one of the movie that made me sit even after it was 12:00 at night. I liked the movie, especially Matt Damon's character.

Watched 'Hancock' today and it was not the type that I like. I did not read the review before because I did not have any plans to watch it today. It was jus another movie and I did not like it. I watched the movie among the number of choices that I had only because Will Smith acted in that. I have been smashed away by his acting in 'The Hitch' and 'The Pursuit of Happyness' earlier and hence thought Will would have shown a different flavour in this movie but not worth watching.

Bathroom Singer Contest

Ha..ha...Don't get dissuaded by the title here. There is no such contest happening anywhere. I was talking to my roomie yesterday about an idea that I have for having such a contest and how it will raise TRPs amidst the soap operas played in satellite TVs. Being a bathroom and in-house singer(?), no wonder that I came up with this idea. The core idea of the contest would be this:

1. Contestants fill an application and send it to the respective personnel [No details about how do you sing and all that...Restricted to demographic data]
2. Contestants are those who have an iota of knowledge about carnatic, hindustani, western or any form of music but all they have is 'Kelvi Gnanam' of filmy music/songs
3. No contestant should have participated in any such contest before
4. Contestants are shortlisted based on their age-group
5. Contestants who participate in the show are given a covered set [like a bathroom or in-house...hmmm...not exactly :)] where-in they can sing and the judges are not allowed to see them but only can hear them sing
6. Jury panel is not given the details of the contestants except contestant A, B etc., and they enter their marks for A, B according to what they heard them singing inside the covered zone [To avoid the judges' 'favoritism']
7. After this prolongs for so many episodes, three winners from each category (age group) are chosen
8. The winners are not given a cash prize or any luxurious items as the prize/award
9. The winning prize is that the jury panel will train these winners and give/get them a chance in a movie to sing songs

How does this sound? There may be more logical things to look upon to make it work but this is my core idea. Ideas can be shaped..Isn't it? :) Who knows? There may be some Harish Raghavendras, Shreya Ghosals, Krishss, Haricharans, Sadhana Sargams, Madhusris emerge from this...

Anyone to take this up to next level? Lemme talk to Subashree Thanickachalam...hee...hee...Jus kiddin'!

10vatharam

There are umpteen reviews about this movie on the web. So, I am not going to write one here but I am going to write 5 things that I liked in the movie or I can say the 5 things that I enjoyed watching.

1. Oho Sanam song - I did not like this song till I watched the visual. I enjoyed the whole song and played it back lot of times after coming home. I liked the voice that Kamal has used to pitch in 'kaatrai thirakkum saavi' and 'Udal boomikke pogattum'
2. Visual effects - Amazing!
3. Asin in a very simple costume in the climax
4. Napolean & his masjesty as the Chola king
5. Chaos theory - It could have been explained well, but I liked the concept that Kamal tried to convey

K.K...

I saw him 7 years ago...a US return guy...The way he handled the particular situation showed his candor...I liked it :)

Next, I saw him after 5 years when I went out with my friends. This time also, he returned from US...His thoughts and views about his would-be better-half and the online chemistry gave me an impression on him :)

Then, I saw him only after 3 years and that's 2 days back with my roomie and this time, he showed how he cares for his friends...This time he did not come from US but from a local village...This shows he can adapt to any region :)

Hmm...So, who is he - KK? Do you think he's the singer or the next door guy or my friend? ;) No...I was talking about the different characters that Karthik Kumar, (Husband of Radio Mirchi fame RJ 'Mirchi' Suchi) a theatre artist and an actor who has acted in films like Alaipayudhey, Kanda Naal Mudhal and the latest 'Yaaradi Nee Mohini?'...

I am wondering why he is always given the role of sacrificing the heroine, his lady love to the Hero? First time to Maddy, next to Prasanna and now to Dhanush....It feeds a 'paavam' sense to us when we see him doing the same thing in films...But there is one thing in common other than his 'sacrificing' nature in these films...I liked all these three movies which din't give me even a minute of boredom...

K..K...hope to see you in different roles in the upcoming films...

P.S.: Suchitra kooda ivlo kavala patrukka maatanga pola....Jus kidding!!! :P

Anjathey...

Not a second Kaakha Kaakha, Not a Valder Vetrivel, Not a Vetaiyadu Vilayadu but Anjathey is an ordinary police story. OK to watch it rather than watching the other filmi Masalas. A 'marupatta' Prasanna with his hippy 'thalai' - different role for Prasanna to cherish :) Nothing much to say...